Break My Fall
by lightblue-Nymphadora
Summary: Harry has the chance to change something. What will the consequences be?
1. A Gift

**_LbN: Ok, so this was just a little random idea. I'll be working on this and the sequel to "Fields" for a while. Unless I get a really good idea, there won't be many one-shots, cuz I'm working on my own book! Wish me luck :). I will have something special up for my one-year birthday, though; so I'm not totally disappearing. Anyhow, hope you're into this one! Happy reading!_**

**Break My Fall**

Harry awoke the next afternoon with the battle still fresh in his mind. His head swam, visions of friends' deaths and Voldemort's downfall clogging every thought. He slipped quietly out of bed, creeping past the rest of his friends to get to the staircase. There were so many things he wanted to do now, but the first he wanted to do alone. Down two flights of stairs, listening to his footsteps echo in the silent castle, he walked. Finally he came to the tapestry he was looking for. Once, twice, three times. _I need a place to relax. _A door handle appeared, but Harry hesitated. Fiendfyre. Ron's words from the night before rang in his head,

"Blimey, do you think it'll still work?"

He had to try though. This was the one room that had saved students' behinds time and again. Future generations of witches and wizards would need it to hide from Filch after hours. He had to know. He reached out and turned the handle, and stepped inside to darkness.

The room was most definitely broken, but somehow Harry didn't think it was broken completely. It was like walking into a blank mind. No noise was there, except for the soft sounds of his feet. In all he had read about Transfiguration, which, admittedly, wasn't a lot, he had no idea what the room was. Thus, he had no idea how to fix it, or even how to tell anyone what was wrong with it.

"The Room shifts dimensions," a voice to his right said. "That's how it can be whatever you need."

Harry spun around, wand raised. His light fell on the figure of a very young Albus Dumbledore.

"What in the hell?" Harry yelped.

"Calm down," Dumbledore said, holding up his hands. "When that fire destroyed the Room's reality sphere, the essence of those who had left things in here dissipated into its dimensional field."

"My head hurts," Harry moaned.

"Listen, Harry, I have…a gift for you. For all you've done."

"What?"

"…You lost so many last night…"

"Yeah, I know," Harry said, slightly peevishly. He had had one hell of a life up till now, and wasn't in the mood for any learning at the moment…

"You can bring one person back. The Room's…unstable reality at the present will allow you to do it. Only one though; you'd completely alter the dimensions if you try to bring back more than one. Which is why, if you do this, you have to promise to destroy the entrance to the Room when you leave. If someone were to find out how you did it, and attempt it themselves, the consequences would be deadly."

Harry James Potter was seventeen years old. He had seen and done a lot of things in his short life. He knew a lot about people. And he knew better than to automatically accept the offer that was being given to him…

"You still haven't gotten over me," he shook his head at Dumbledore with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore smiled slightly, twiddling his thumbs.

"You keep doing this. Trying to save me from more pain without giving me all the details. What will happen if I bring someone back? That alters reality itself doesn't it?"

"If you choose carefully, not much."

"What about the person I choose? Will they come back wonky?"

"I don't know that, Harry," Dumbledore said softly. "There's no way of knowing. But know that you may help more people in the long run if you choose this."

"Fred."

"Full name please."

Full name? What the hell was Fred's middle name? Harry thought hard, he knew this…

"Frederick Anthony Weasley."

A small blink of blue light flashed across Harry's vision. There, standing before him, was Fred.

"What the hell?" the redhead said. "I'm back? I'm back…"

"F…Fred?"

"Harry! Where's everyone? Why's everything so dark? I want Mum…and George, and everyone. Are they okay?"

"They're fine…" Harry choked, pulling Fred out of the Room. He turned to the tapestry, "Ếrasus!"

It was blown apart. He walked past three times, thinking _I need somewhere to relax._ Nothing happened. Satisfied, Harry beckoned for Fred to follow him and began explaining everything that happened.

"Where were you?" he finally asked the older boy. "When you went on, where did you go?"

"Can't tell you," Fred shook his head. "It's…a rule. Cuz we can, you know, appear in dreams and other unstable reality fields like the one you just pulled me through. We're not allowed to talk about Death."

Harry nodded. They had made it to the Great Hall by that time. There was a screech and both boys looked up in time to see Mrs. Weasley fall into Bill's arms. The entire hall was quiet as a tomb. Then, without warning, George launched himself out of his seat and sprinted the entire hall to where Fred and Harry stood, finally throwing himself into his twins arms, sobbing. Harry walked over to the rest of the family, who were making their way over as well. Ginny grabbed Harry's arm and asked,

"How?" in a tremulous voice.

As best he could, because he didn't really believe it either, he told them. Bill finally got his mother to wake up, and she began to sob. Harry stood back and watched them together, wondering, _hoping_, that he had made the right decision. The Marauders and their spouses (the two that had them) were together. This way, the Weasleys were whole again. Things would be alright now; they had to be.

**_LbN: Hope you liked it! Review please!!_**


	2. A Problem

**_LbN: Hey y'all! Sorry this took so long; I've been working. Anyway, happy reading!_**

**BMF**

Harry woke up with a snort. Feeling around his nightstand for his glasses, he swung his feet onto the cold floor and tried to clear his head of grogginess. The doorbell rang again. Who was coming over at seven in the morning? He walked out into the hall, yawning. Grimmuald Place was silent except for the sound of Kreacher starting breakfast in the kitchen. Harry looked out of the peephole and pulled the door open.

"Fred? What's up?"

"Could I come in?"

"Sure!"

They walked silently into the dining room. Harry had a bad feeling about Fred's presence at Grimmauld Place. It had been about a week and a half since he had brought the Weasley back from…wherever he had been. He had been nervous the entire time about something bad happening; for Fred to be different than before or something else to be wrong with him. Harry had a hunch that something had happened, but it could be leftover paranoia from the war. Everybody had that these days…

"Kreacher? Fred'll be joining us for breakfast, alright?"

"Of course, Master Harry. Pumpkin juice is on the counter."

"Thanks Kreacher."

Harry grabbed two glasses out of a cabinet and picked up the jug of orange colored juice. When he walked back into dining room, Fred was pacing back and forth behind the table.

"What's up Fred?" Harry asked.

"Harry I…I think something's wrong," Fred stopped pacing and looked at him.

"Come on, sit down. What's going on?"

"Well, a couple of days ago, I noticed that whenever I would talk to someone, I would have to repeat myself. At first I just thought it was my voice, but today I tried telling Mum something and she couldn't hear me! I shook her shoulder to get her attention, but then I had to shout at the top of my lungs for her to hear me. I don't know what's—Harry, what's wrong?"

Harry had just smacked his head against the table, twice. He looked up at Fred with an apologetic expression.

"I knew it. I knew better. I just knew something like this was going to happen! I was just so ready to see you again. And I knew George was hurting so much…"  
"Harry, what is this?"

"…I don't know, but I think you're…fading."  
"What??"

"I messed with reality. You should be dead; you'd gone on and everything. Nothing's supposed to be able to bring back the dead. The field I pulled you through was really unstable, maybe you came back unstable too."

"Wow…er…well then…"

"Breakfast for young Masters," Kreacher said, setting plates of eggs, sausages and toast down in front of each of them.

"Thanks Kreacher."

"Master is very welcome."

"So," Fred looked up from his food, "do you know how to fix me?"

"I…I don't. But maybe we can find out. Hey, how come I can hear you?"

"I don't know. Maybe you're just special. Look, I have to go home for a while. I'll meet you back here after lunch."

"Alright. Look, Fred…it'll be alright. I'm sorry about this."

"Don't worry about it. We can't go back now…"

**BMF**

Fred walked gloomily back into the Burrow. He had been so happy to be back with George, now he was just going to have to leave again. He opened the door quietly and crept up to his and George's room. His twin stood up when he entered.

"Fred? What did Harry say? Why can't we hear you?"

"Can you hear me now?"

"I can't hear you Fred."

Fred went over to the drawer where they kept the sketch books for the prototypes. With a trembling hand, he wrote:

_**What would you do if I had to go away again?**_

George looked up at him.

"What? What's wrong? You're not d-dying?"

_**Fading from reality is Harry's hypothesis. He's going to help me figure out how to stop it, but just in case it doesn't work…**_

"It's going to work," George said firmly. "It has to. You can't leave me—us again."

_**George, we have to be serious. I never thought I'd have to say that. Or write it, rather, but we do. I need to know that you'll be okay if I have to leave. **_

"I won't," George whispered, tearing up. "I lost you once, I can't do it again."

Fred hugged his twin. Or, rather, tried to hug him. When he went to embrace George, his arms went right through his twin. George looked horrified for a moment, then fainted. With a yelp that no one heard, Fred looked wildly around for something to help, finally realizing that there were no liquid substances in the room. He bolted for the door and only realized halfway down the stairs, that he had gone straight through it. Molly gave him a worried look as he dashed frantically into the kitchen. That look turned to fearful as he walked right through the table toward the sink. Concentrating with all his might on being real, he grabbed a glass and turned on the water. Fred ran back upstairs with his mother at his heals, yelling for him to explain. Remembering just in time that the glass was solid, he opened the door, ran into the room, and tossed the water onto his twin who was already stirring. George woke up sputtering. He looked between his mother and his twin and said, "We have a serious problem."

**BMF**

Harry practically ran through the halls of the Ministry. Finally, he got to the hall he was looking for and slid to a halt in front of a secretary's desk.

"Is Minister Shaklebolt in?" he gasped. "It's urgent."

The man at the desk stood and beckoned for Harry to follow. He knocked on the door next to his desk and opened it.

"Mr. Shaklebolt? Mr. Harry Potter is here to see you."

"Show him in," Harry heard.

Thanking Kingsley's assistant, he walked into the comfortable office. Still breathing unevenly, Harry said,

"I have a question Kingsley, and I need you to answer honestly. The Department of Mysteries, do they experiment with reality zones?"

Kingsley looked taken aback for a moment but waved Harry into a chair. He pulled out a file from his desk drawer and opened it.

"Yes," he said. "How did you know?"

"I didn't. It was just a lucky guess…"

As rapidly and as clearly as he could, Harry told Kingsley what was happening with Fred and about how he had brought him back in the first place. Kingsley listened open mouthed but did not interrupt.

"And now Molly just sent me a Patronus saying Fred's walking through walls and tables and stuff that ought to be solid."

"Come with me," Kingsley said, standing up.

He led Harry to the elevator and the pair of them went down to the Department of Mysteries. Harry recognized some of the doors from his first escapade down there, but the one Kingsley led him to was completely different.

"Listen Harry," Kingsley told him, "The research is in its infancy, the findings are few. I don't know how much they'll be able to help Fred."

"Okay," Harry nodded and followed him into the room.

It was a rather normal study, if a bit large, with rows of bookshelves behind a small desk. An old, but friendly looking man sat there, perusing a large book.

"Morning Widgens!" Kingsley said. "Harry is looking for some information on the side effects of taking…things out of alternate or unstable reality fields."

"Hello Mr. Potter," Widgens nodded. "I'll see if I can help, but you must know that there is very little information on the subject."

"Yes sir, I know."

"Come along then."

**_LbN: Hope you liked the chapter! Send me a review, cool beans?_**


	3. A Solution

**_LbN: Hey guys! Last chapter!_**

**BMF**

Harry ran his hands through his hair and sighed. How was he going to tell Fred? He mentally pummeled himself once more. A gift, yeah right. As he descended the stairs, Kreacher came into the hall and wheezed up at him,

"Masters Fred and George Weasley have come to see you, Master Harry."

"Thank you Kreacher."

As he entered the kitchen, Harry gave a shout and stumbled back into the doorframe. Standing there were George and Fred, but Fred looked…different. Harry could see through him partially. This sealed Harry's theory on what was happening.

"Kreacher," he said, "Could you bring us some of your special pumpkin juice?"

"Right away, Master Harry," the elf bowed.

"What's so special about it?" George asked.

"It's spiked with three types of alcohol," Harry answered. "I normally only ask for it when I'm sick, but I have a feeling we're all going to want some."

"Have you found something out then?" Fred asked, and this time he sounded distant even to Harry.

"I think I know what the problem is, and how to fix it. You're not going to like either," he said, more to George than to Fred. "Sit down."

Kreacher brought back three glasses, into which he poured a dark orange liquid from a flask. After taking a sip and cringing, Harry began to explain.

"From what I read, I think what's happening is this: I pulled Fred from a stable reality through an unstable one and into another stable one. In both stable realities, you should be dead. So, you know, this reality is trying to adjust to you being here the easiest way possible—"

"By getting rid of me," Fred nodded.

"Er…yeah. You're fading. And…well, there's another thing. If you fade from this reality, you won't exist at all since you're not…um, where you're supposed to be."

Avoiding the twins' panicked looks, Harry took another swig and continued.

"But if we can just put you back, you'll be fine. You'll be in your correct…whatever it is."

"Do you think…" George trailed off, looking at the shadow of his brother. "Do you think this would happen to me if I went with him?"

"I think it would, George," Harry said apologetically. "There's a bigger problem though."

"Another one?" Fred sighed.

"I destroyed the entrance to the Room of Requirement, remember?"

"All of them?" both twins asked.

"Excuse me?"

"The Room can regenerate entrances at different places in the castle. You just have to find where it moved to when you destroyed the tapestry."

With a pang of sadness, Harry recalled how he had found the Room the first time. He'd have no help this go around…

"I'm going to get my map," he told the twins. "You two send a message to McGonagall; tell her we're coming."

Harry got to his feet a tad unsteadily, but regained his balance and bolted for his room. He pointed his wand at the top drawer of his desk and heard the lock turn. Opening it, he grabbed the Marauders' Map and locked the drawer back. When he returned to the kitchen, Fred and George were standing near the fire.

"It's easier for him to Floo," George explained. Harry simply nodded and followed the twins into the green flames.

**BMF**

"I will assist you as much as I can," McGonagall said when Harry gave her the very abridged rendition of what was happening. "I have to oversee some of the construction going on, but I will keep an eye out and send a Patronus to you if I find the Room."

"Thanks professor," Harry said, turning to leave. He went back into the hall where Fred and George were waiting.

"Let's go."

They began in the dungeons, combing every classroom looking for the door. Harry had no idea why he'd even brought the map. The Room had never appeared on it before when he…

He stopped. Fred and George turned to look at him.

"What's up?" Fred shouted.

It was so simple. The Room had never appeared because he'd never _needed_ it to. He'd known where it was when he'd gone in his fifth year, and in his sixth he hadn't know Malfoy was in there, so he hadn't asked the map to show him the room.

"George, hold this up," he said.

Once, twice, three times. _I need to put Fred back._

He looked. There, on the second floor between the statue of the Eleventh Educational Rebellion and a painting of Glemis the Gallant, was the Room of Requirement.

"Found it," he smiled.

When they made it to the Room, Harry stood back and let George have a moment with his twin.

"I can't hug you," George said, trying anyway. Fred stood back and waved at Harry.

"I'm sorry, Fred," Harry lamented. "Really, I didn't mean for this—"

"'s alright," Fred smiled. "Just…look after George okay?"

"I will."

Harry opened the door. It was still dark inside. Apparently the Room couldn't repair itself, or hadn't gotten around to it yet."

"Bye Fred," George said quietly.

Harry closed the door on the redhead, hoping that this worked. Once it was closed, he turned to look at George, who was sitting on the wall opposite the door.

"George? Come on, we can't stay here."

"Suppose not," he whispered.

**BMF**

"Oh, hello Harry!" Molly smiled.

It had been about a week since Fred had gone. George, unable to stand his family's uneasy looks, had stayed with Harry for a few days. That morning, however, he had been gone when Kreacher went to wake him for breakfast.

"Er…Mrs. Weasley, has George come by today?" Harry asked.

"Bill sent me an owl saying he turned up early this morning," she answered.

"Oh, okay. He didn't tell me he was leaving."

"I think he just…wants to keep moving right now. He told me he wants to go back to the store next month."

"I think I'll go see him," Harry said, walking toward the door. "It's been a while since I've seen Bill and Fleur too."

"Have a good trip, dear," Molly smiled, pressing a cinnamon roll into his hand as he left.

A minute or two later, he was standing in front of Shell Cottage. He took a bite of his breakfast as he rang the ornate bell. Fleur's doing, he though with a smile. Footsteps approached and the door swung open to reveal Bill Weasley.

"Harry!" he smiled. "Mum told you George was here?"

"Yeah," Harry nodded. He still felt a little weird around the Weasleys. He hadn't expected them to forgive him like this. "How's he doing?"

"Alright. He's out back, if you want to check on him."

George was sitting on the cliffs when Harry reached him. Panic shot through him as he saw the redhead, but George smiled slightly when he approached.

"Hey Harry," he said. "Mum tell you where I was?"

"Yeah. You okay? I didn't know you were leaving."  
"Sorry about that. I just…dunno, wanted to see Bill."

"It's fine. Just wanted to make sure you were okay."

He sat down next to George and the pair of them sat in silence. The waves crashed and rolled. Harry looked over at his friend; George looked calm. The calmest Harry had seen him in days in fact.

"He was in my dreams last night," George said after a while. "Fred. He said he got back to wherever he was."

"Good," Harry smiled in relief.

"I thought about killing myself, you know," George continued. Harry looked up at him, alarmed. "No worries, I'm better now. I just…had this selfish moment where I wanted to be with him and that was all that mattered."

"George, that's hardly selfish," Harry smiled slightly.

"It was. It would've killed Mum and Dad, and all the rest of them. And you."

He turned to look at Harry.

"Look Harry, I know you blame yourself for this, but it's okay. I would've done the same thing; any of us would. Well, to be fair, Ginny might've brought Tonks back…Anyway, the point is, don't beat yourself up about this. He's happy, he told me so."

"You don't hate me?"

"No way," George smiled. "And neither does he."

They looked back out at the sea. Sitting there in silence Harry knew, through his pain, that everything was okay.

_**FIN**_

_**I am losing you again  
Let me out and let me in  
'cause you're not alone here  
Not at all  
Let me belong here  
Break my fall.**_

**_LbN: Hope you liked it!! Review please! New poll's up._**


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